The financial and career costs of motherhood, especially over a lifetime, are typically huge despite decades of sweeping social change.

Now there's striking new evidence underscoring how deeply entrenched and pervasive the motherhood penalty is. Even in Denmark, one of the world's most progressive societies, that penalty is increasing.

The financial and career costs of motherhood, especially over a lifetime, can be huge.

Photo: SbytovaMN

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A trio of researchers led by economist Henrick Jacobsen have found child-related gender inequality in Danish earnings grew from 18 per cent in 1980 to 20 per cent in 2013. That's despite Denmark having some of world's most family-friendly public polices in place for a considerable period.

Other traditional drivers of gender inequality, such as levels of education, have gradually diminished, meaning the remaining gender disparity "is all about children" according to the study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Even with "perfectly equal pay for equal work" there would still be large gender inequality in earnings as equal work is not an option for the majority of women, who are faced with the lion's share of childcare responsibilities.

"The striking finding from this exercise is that child penalties are gradually taking over as the key driver of gender inequality" concludes the study, which drew on national administrative data spanning three decades.

There is no analysis of children and gender inequity in Australia as comprehensive as the Danish study, although local researchers have identified a considerable wage penalty for mothers. An investigation by the Diversity Council in 2014 found raising children accounted for "a 17 per cent loss in lifetime wages for women".

Experts say the factors that cause the motherhood penalty are likely to be far more entrenched in Australia than in Denmark (along with many other advanced economies).

The prevalence of part-time work among mothers is a big factor. Australia has a high share of part-time jobs compared to our international peers, and women hold over 70 per cent of them.

Melbourne University's Professor Lyn Craig says that trend alone means "the gender gap in what can be earned over a lifetime is enormous".

Mothers often go for jobs with predictable hours and lower levels of responsibility because of the need to juggle childcare. But those jobs normally come with lower pay than those with high levels responsibility and long, unpredictable hours. Mothers often can't pick up overtime, or the more lucrative shifts, due to childcare responsibilities, which also adds to the gender pay gap.

Policies that encourage the participation of mothers in the workforce, such as paid parental leave and childcare services, are much less generous here than in Denmark and some of its European counterparts.

Another reason the motherhood penalty is so entrenched in Australia is the enduring potency of the "male breadwinner" model, when fathers are the primary breadwinners and mothers the secondary earners or full-time carers. That pattern has been surprisingly resilient in the face of economic change.

A recent study led by the University of Queensland's Professor Janeen Baxter concluded Australia has a "much stronger" male breadwinner culture than many other comparable nations, including the US.

Baxter says the traditional belief that it is "best" for mothers to care for young children is remarkably widespread in Australia.

Her research shows there was a trend towards more egalitarian gender attitudes in Australia up until the mid-1990s, but that trend has flattened and in some cases even reversed since.

"We are becoming more traditional in our views around childcare and the role of mothers," she told me. "Australians are still quite conservative on those kinds of views."

When it comes to family dynamics, change has been fairly slow in Australia.

"You can get the impression that in 2018 we are very egalitarian, especially when you look things like the number of girls going into higher education and changes to women in sport," says Baxter.

"But what I've consistently found in my research is that, at a basic family level, things are still quite traditional – when there are young children, it is women who do most the care work."

The evidence from Denmark is that some family cultures "transmit" child penalties through generations.

The researchers found that in "traditional families" where the mother works very little compared to the father, their daughter incurs a larger child penalty when she eventually becomes a mother herself.

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The Danish case suggests it will take more than progressive government policies to ensure equal opportunities for mothers and fathers.

Unless households change the way childcare is organised, the motherhood penalty will continue to be as predictable as death and taxes.